Bleeding out is one of the cruelest ways to die. The slow, steady drain of red warmth from your body while you can only lie there and watch it happen feels like punishment. I’ve watched kids my age go like that before, seen them fade because no one could stop the leak. The memory sits behind my eyes now, heavy and useless, and it makes this moment worse. I don’t want to go like that.

  Somehow, though, fate has other plans, because here I am bleeding and still thinking. I’m surprised the blow to the head didn’t finish me. I suppose I'm tougher than I imagined—my damn pulse still ticks. And my body feels like garbage. Cold, heavy, and failing. Death settles on me like a second skin. It's slow and persistent.

  I’m going to die again. Which means I’ll have to fight the demon again.

  Right now, I need a healer. Fast. My regeneration isn’t kicking in, not a flicker, and that’s not surprising. The tail scored me deep, and whatever poison rode its barbs is doing the work now. The toxin is why I keep crashing. It’s why the world keeps dimming. There’s one odd mercy, though. I’m immune to that one move it tried on me. Who would’ve thought my silver hair would save me someday? Small ironies, I guess. Tiny threads of luck tangled in a mess of blood and pain. I now know that the Silver Child blessing is more than I thought.

  'Adam, you fuckin’ genius.'

  I try to laugh, but the sound becomes a cough thick with blood and a few loosened teeth clattering in my mouth. Red dances at the edges of my vision. Numbness crawls under my skin like frost. Can death hurry up and finish the job? I don’t want to lie here like this. Next time I won’t be so careless. I’ll scavenge supplies, make a plan, and find a blade. Anything to tip the scales. I’ll come back prepared.

  The constellations must be getting a show. Watching an undying girl tremble on the edge of oblivion…that’s their sort of entertainment. I mean, what else would they watch?

  More blood pools beneath me. Dark spreads across the floor like ink. My strength drains out with every slow heartbeat, and the world blurs at the edges. Dying like this. It scares me that I have to die like this. But I can't do a thing about it. I can't decide on how I want to die.

  I drag a final breath through lips that taste metallic. The cold presses in, gentle and vast. I count the seconds as my pulse unwinds.

  'Death by bleeding. How fitting.' I think bitterly, 'dying the same way as my brothers and sisters.'

  I close my eyes to let peace take me.

  Silence. No system chime announcing my death. No neat, bureaucratic message.

  Something else happens instead.

  ***

  The gap between the moment I close my eyes and when I open them feels like a blink. I was numb before, now everything aches, and the pain is a living thing. My skin is on fire. I want to scream, but my throat is a dry cave. Time scrambles. How much has passed? How am I not dead?

  Regeneration would be the easy answer. But I know my body. I don’t heal this fast. The cave around me also looks wrong. It's darker, and the pond’s sickly glow is gone. The only light is a tiny crystal on the floor, blinking on and off like a dying star. Its faint, jerking pulse makes the shadows twitch.

  I drag the strength to lift my arm. It feels foreign, heavy as a log. Bandages wrap the forearm. They’re old, caked with darkened blood. Underneath, raw wounds gape. This is the arm Horus chewed. It stings in a way that makes my teeth ache, but the worst of the pain sits somewhere deeper in my lungs, ribs, the hollow where breath should be.

  Someone has patched me. A voice comes from nearby. I don’t have the strength to turn my head, nor to summon the Trusted Dagger. All I can do is listen, so my world narrows to the voice.

  “You’re awake. Thank the stars.”

  Soft, careful, threaded with worry. It sounds familiar, like a memory pulled from a box I’d thought burned. My ribs rasp every syllable. “Where…who…?” I force words out in ragged gasps. Filling my lungs feels like trying to breathe through burlap.

  “You don’t recognize me by my voice? Did that fight scramble your head?” She steps closer and looms over me. Her hair, a warm ginger, brushes my face and smells faintly of herbs. When she smiles, it’s vast and open and impossible to trust in this cave. She leans down and presses a cool kiss to my forehead. Heat blooms in my chest despite the cold. Then, my memory fractures flicker. My mouth forms a name before I can stop it.

  “Tessia,” I croak. The name tastes like salt and old sorrow. But the Tessia I remember is supposed to be dead. “Am I dead?”

  She laughs. The sound of it is bright and wrong. “Why would you think that?” Her fingers check the bandages with practiced gentleness. “I thought you’d never wake again.”

  “Adam said you died.” The words are accusation and plea tangled together. Adam wouldn't lie about her. Would he?

  Tessia doesn’t flinch. Instead, she tilts her head. Her green eyes are so clear they’re almost cruel. “Adam says a lot of things,” she answers. “You bled out, and I dragged you back. Barely.” Her voice softens in a way that almost undoes me. “You’re lucky I sensed you.”

  Luck. The word tastes like iron. I try to sit up. The world yawns, then rights itself a hair. Pain flares along my ribs; something inside me catches like a snapped string. Tessia’s hand steadies my shoulder.

  “You’re not healed,” she tells me. “Not fully. Your lungs…” She pauses and turns her glance toward the small blinking crystal. “This will buy us time. Don’t talk. Breathe. Hold on to me.”

  I swallow. The cave hums with the slow, steady burble of water somewhere in the dark. At least I know I am not too far from where I last fought. But something in me is telling me that I am not safe. Like a disturbance that I can't put a finger on.

  Tessia was one of the older kids from the first trial. She was also the oldest one in her group and the only person to take an S Grade potion. I wouldn’t call her a genius because she never liked that word, but she was basically a prodigy among the clones who were already born with high intelligence.

  I looked up to her because…

  ‘I don’t remember why I looked up to her first place. But I was devastated when I learned that she had died in this place. No burial was held for her and her group…those idiots just moved on to us.’

  “How long has it been on Beta 3?” Tessia asks. There is a twitch in her voice I can’t place. It's flat, too steady, like someone practicing concern.

  “Five years,” I groan.

  Saying it out loud hurt in a small, ridiculous way, but the words anchor me. The healing factor is slowly working now. It feels like electricity creeping under my skin. Muscle knits to tendon with a cold, precise efficiency. Tiny, satisfying pops and cracks sound inside me as my bones begin to settle and cartilage seals. No one else hears them, but they sing to me like a Morse code of survival.

  Tessia sits down beside me and breathes out a long, tired sigh. Up close, she is the same Tessia I remember in fragments. Bronze skin, a halo of curly red hair, hands callused from a life that wasn’t gentle. Her face still carries the heroic patience of someone who’d seen too many things and still chose to do the right thing. But there was a wrongness too...an edge under the warmth.

  She looks almost unmarked for someone who has spent years in this realm. Her clothes are patched but clean. Her eyes, those bright green eyes, have a clarity that felt rehearsed. They track me too calmly, like a hunter who’s learned the shape of prey.

  When she smiles, it doesn’t reach the corners of her mouth the way it used to. Her fingers hover a hair too long over the bandages on my arm, then withdraw, as if deciding whether to touch. Her hand is cool. It's not the comforting warmth of a friend, but the practical efficiency of a medic who’d stitched a dozen people back together and learned to keep feelings tidy. Also, she wears a shocked expression each time we make contact.

  Maybe I’d hit my head too hard. Maybe the cave and the blood and whatever Tessia had fed me are scrambling my senses.

  Still, a thread of suspicion threads itself through me. Five years in a Nexus Event and not a single scar to show for it? She should’ve been marked, worn by time and damage like the rest of us. Instead, she looked…preserved. Too Young!

  Just as I open my mouth to ask what’s wrong, she cuts me off with that warm, reassuring smile. “Unfortunately, he wasn’t wrong, Astrid. I did die. In fact, we all died while hunting the heart of the dragon after we became Nexus Beings as part of our main mission.”

  They became Nexus Beings? So the Trial succeeded! I refuse to accept it. Does Adam even know they pulled it off?

  But another detail snags my fractured focus. “...Main mission?”

  I feign ignorance about the Spire that houses the dragon’s heart. I need the full truth. What that heart really does, and why it mattered enough to Adam and the facility that they’d gamble away such a promising team.

  Tessia would’ve been the ideal Nexus Being, honed to perfection with the right guidance. She was already flawless as a Clone.

  “Were you told about the Spire?”

  I shake my head slowly. “No. This is my first time hearing about it,” I lie once more. I have no clue why I can see a ghost like her, but I won’t squander this. Tessia and I connect for a purpose.

  Is this my prize for slaying Horus the Demon? Or does my resurrection power twist reality in ways I can’t grasp?

  “I don’t understand how this is happening,” Tessia says, her voice steady but laced with awe. “This connection you’ve forged. It must be an awakened power tied to your Dragon blood or something. I don’t know how long it’ll hold now that I’ve healed you, so I’ll tell you everything I know while it lasts.”

  She leans closer, her eyes sharp with urgency. She begins. “Bloodhaul is an experimental outpost on Beta 3, a planet fully colonized by humans. Its ruler is a Nexus Being, ranked as Monarch…the Blood Monarch to be exact.”

  A chill snakes down my spine. “Blood Monarch?” The name drips with heavy menace. It wants to sound familiar and frightening.

  “I won’t dive into the grisly details,” she continues, “but you need to grasp this. We’re the Monarch’s creations. His blood flows in us, crafted into the potions that shape us. It’s why we survive the transformations—because a literal monarch’s essence pulses within our veins.”

  “What exactly are Monarch Nexus Beings?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper. I am confused. Nexus Beings do have ranks. They grow stronger as they challenge Nexus Events and face more battles. Each rank has a name and a meaning behind it. But they don’t disclose that information to us.

  Monarch sounds alien to me.

  “They’re the pillars of most races across the Galaxy,” she explains. “Humanity has three major colonies, two of which are ruled by Monarchs. I don’t know about the third, but it exists somewhere in the Cosmos Ring.”

  I stay silent, soaking in her words. The outside world is a mystery to me. I never planned to live long enough to care, unlike the others who burned with curiosity about the human realms. Ignorance feels like a weight now, pressing against my chest. I now see how unprepared I am for the outside. Shit. I should’ve paid more attention during those exploration classes.

  I know the basics, like the Galactic Order—a sprawling alliance of governments from various colonies. But Monarchs ruling an advanced race like humanity? That’s news to me, if that’s what Tessia means. And what in the void is the Cosmos Ring?

  Other questions gnaw at me, like how I’m even speaking to someone who died ages ago. But I know I will have an explanation when I finally have the strength to summon a system window.

  “The Monarchs have existed since the first Nexus Event,” Tessia says, her voice low and heavy with secrets. “The same event that wiped out the silver children. Your kind to be exact.”

  “My kind?” My breath catches, the words sharp in my throat.

  Tessia leans closer, her cold hand grazing my forehead, fingers brushing through my silver hair with a tenderness that chills me.

  “The history of the silver children is shrouded, barely a whisper in the archives,” she murmurs. “But the first Nexus Event? It began with them.”

  “What happened?” I ask, hungry for answers.

  Tessia shrugs, her expression a mix of resignation and mystery. “How should I know? I’m only here to warn you about what you’re walking into. We were sent on an expedition to find the heart of a True Dragon—to unleash the next Monarch. With that power, the Blood Monarch could launch his conquest, standing as humanity’s true pillar with another Monarch at his side. It breaks every rule, but his blood runs in us. We are him.”

  ‘It all clicks now. Nico’s chasing the power of a Monarch, the Dragon Monarch, to be precise. My luck might not be as rotten as I thought. That kind of power? I’d kill for it, too.’

  A smirk tugs at my lips. Nico’s sharper than I gave him credit for. While the others scrambled to forge souls into Nexus Beings, he was out there, leading an expedition, hunting for supreme power.

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  Adam’s no fool either. He’s playing this smarter than before. He sent me here last because he knows someone’s after the True Dragon’s heart. The expedition failed once, and it cost him a handful of Nexus Beings because he underestimated their mortality. They died. So this time, he’s split the plan: one group explores, another chases Nexus status, and me?

  He’s left me to piece it all together on my own. He knew I would decide to go for the Dragon Heart once I found out what it does.

  “What happened when you reached the Spire?” I ask.

  The rush of battling a demon and nearly dying suddenly feels like a twisted gift. Tessia’s gone, yet some force binds me to her, letting her pour out this priceless knowledge.

  Knowledge about the Spire—and the treasure it hides.

  “The Spire belongs to a Dragon,” Tessia continues. “This realm was a battleground for the great war between dragons and demons. The details we uncovered are murky, pieced together from items granted by the system. But here’s what matters: the Chaos Lord, Avagon, was the scourge the Dragons swore to erase from existence. Dragons were righteous and mighty beings who believed that demons, born of chaos and bred in evil, had no place in the universe.”

  “Chaos,” I echo, the word bitter on my tongue. I’ve heard of it before. A corruptive force that festers in the darkest emotions of every living soul. Unlike the warm, vibrant pulse of Star Ether, chaos is a cold, creeping shadow, far too easy to conjure. Humans, especially, become its unwitting hosts. Beyond Nexus Events, it’s one of the greatest threats superpowered beings faced a long time ago as they began traveling through space.

  “This realm is drenched in chaos,” Tessia says, her eyes narrowing. “The system labels its creations Dark Species, so you have to be careful when you start hearing things.” She pauses, her voice growing sharper.

  “Anyway, when we made it to the spire’s territory, we discovered the chaos here had twisted the corpses of Dragons into zombies. That wasn’t a problem because I believed we were strong enough to wipe them out. And we did. But what I never saw coming was that one of us had become a vessel for chaos.”

  My body tenses at her words. The thought of becoming a host for chaos never crossed my mind until now.

  I can piece together what happened to Tessia’s group. They were a formidable crew, yet the battle against each other and those creatures must’ve carved a brutal toll on their souls and bodies.

  Tessia continues, her voice steady but laced with warning. “The Dragon’s Spire isn’t kind to those outside the Dragon Pathway. The system lures challengers in, but it’s a merciless gauntlet for anyone without a drop of dragon blood.”

  I listen, an invisible smile curling inside me. Everything aligns in my favor. With this knowledge, I can seize the power to become a Monarch myself.

  A Dragon Monarch.

  ‘Heh, the stars are practically bowing to me for once.’

  “Are you smiling right now?” Tessia’s voice snaps me out of my scheming.

  “What gives it away?”

  “Your eyes betray you,” she responds, a glint of amusement in her gaze.

  “Hard not to when I learn I’ve got a chance that could make me one of humanity’s pillars.”

  Tessia lets out a soft chuckle. “You’ve changed, Astrid. I thought you were set on ending it all.”

  Her words catch me off guard. She knew that about me? Part of me still craves that escape, that final release. But I’m an Undying. I’m cursed to endure, no matter how much I long for oblivion.

  “Unfortunately, I’m stuck,” I mutter. “The curse of being an Undying.”

  Tessia’s laughter erupts, bright and unrestrained, echoing the vibrant girl I remember from my youth. That spark, that life in her. It floods back now. I realize why I idolized her so fiercely back then.

  Tessia was the one who taught me to fight head-on. She told me that just because I’m small, it doesn’t mean I have to bend the knee. I was ten when she told me not to die when I drink the potion, that I have to survive because the others died.

  I think that is why I stayed alive that day. She told me to stay alive, and I did. I guess she had that effect on people. I wonder if Ivy survived the potion. Thinking about her leaves a cold feeling in my heart. She’s not a clone, after all.

  “How intriguing,” she says, leaning closer, her eyes glinting with sharp curiosity. “A girl who craves death, yet you’re an Undying. What kind of Undying are you?”

  I see no harm in sharing the truth, but I opt for a lie instead.“I just refuse to stay dead,” I respond, keeping my tone flat. I can’t let anyone know about my ability to return. Not yet, not ever. I’m still too clueless about this world, and my trump card is too valuable to expose. Someone out there might covet a power like mine.

  Tessia was my friend, but she’s dead. Revealing that I can reset the world every time I die could paint a target on my back. What if someone, or something, can manipulate spirits or the dead? Whatever Tessia is now, I’m not taking chances.

  She laughs, a soft, knowing sound. “Hehe, you’re lying to the one who dragged your sorry body out of a collapsing cave.”

  I raise an eyebrow. “Are you even a person anymore?”

  She shakes her head, her form flickering faintly. Now that I know, she's no longer trying to look human anymore. “No. I’m just the remnants of my Star Ether, lingering in this cave where I died. My energy has clung to this place for years. I can guide you and Nico out of these mountains. It was my last option because I wanted to help the next group. Unfortunately, dormant humans can’t sense me or my energy. But your ability lets me go as far as even contact.”

  The first thing that comes to my mind is the Silver Child blessing. I underestimated the meaning of my blessing and how strong it was exactly.

  I did not bleed to death because that is how the others died. She saved my life through Tessia.

  While I’m still thinking, a notification hums in my mind.

  [“Whispers of the Unknown” has fully integrated. All innate abilities restored.]

  [You have received a magic item]

  Hearing that, I finally get an idea of what I am dealing with.

  ‘

  “What if you guide only me?”

  Tessia shakes her head before I finish the sentence.

  “No way. You can’t fight alone,” she argues firmly. “More importantly, you need Nico to teach you how to wield Ether. The Spire demands someone skilled with it. Our expedition lasted as long as it did because we knew Ether inside and out.”

  My body’s restoration kicks in, a faint warmth spreading through my limbs, urging them to move. The rest of my senses also return, and the cave around us starts to feel like an extension of the last. Damp air clings to my skin, heavy with the scent of wet stone.

  Tessia’s form shimmers faintly. I notice now the wisps of Ether peeling off her skin, like fading stardust, as she strains to hold her corporeal shape.

  “How long have you been… like this?”

  “A ghost, you mean?”

  I nod, my strength still fragile.

  “Five years,” she answers, her voice tinged with resignation. “After battling the Darknest Night and barely surviving, I fled to these mountains and faced Horus. I couldn’t return to the real world since the mission wasn’t complete. These bracelets…” She gestures to my wrist. “They locked us in this realm until the expedition ends.”

  I lift my arm, studying the bracelet. Its magical energy hums. Tiny roots of power, burrowing into my system, tethering me to its will. Does that mean that the scientists at Bloodhaul get to decide who gets out of the Event and who doesn't?

  “Can you lead me to Nico?” I ask, shifting my original request since she insists. The magic pendant that should be around my neck is gone, and I’m certain Nico has caught on to me working behind his back. Also, if anyone can get rid of bracelets without dying, it's him. I need him as much as he needs me.

  Tessia nods, her ghostly form flickering. “Nico’s already on his way. He marked you a while back.”

  Of course he did. He’s a paranoid guy.

  Days later, Nico finds me at the cave’s mouth, my silhouette framed against the jagged stone.

  He stops a few meters away, his eyes narrowing. “Never took you for a double-crosser, Astrid. Tricking me with a clone. How vile.” His voice drips with mock betrayal, but I see the glint of amusement in his gaze.

  “I didn’t double-cross you, Nico,” I counter. “I knew I had to meet your standards, so I took a little side quest to toughen up.”

  I hoist a makeshift sack and toss it to him. It has been days, and most of me has recovered thanks to my enhanced healing factor. It appears that Star Ether does its magic despite being a Dormant. However, Tessia believes that this is my dragon blood becoming more active. Whatever it is, I feel much stronger.

  Nico catches it with ease, his fingers deft as he unties the knot. His expression stays cool, but his eyes flicker with shock when he peers inside at the severed head of the demon we’ve been dodging for weeks.

  He erupts into laughter, the sound echoing off the cave walls. “Hahaha! That’s my Star Child! How’d you pull it off? Was it a brutal fight? Did you unlock some new power? Spill it!”

  Too many questions, but I indulge him. I need him to trust we’re in this together. It’s our only shot at escaping this wretched place and Bloodhaul. Killing him can wait.

  “I used an Ether crystal to blast its head apart.” I flex my newly healed arm. “It nearly tore my arm off first, so it wasn’t easy. And yeah, I picked up a new trick, ‘Whispers of the Unknown.’ Turns out, that thing was a Demon born from Chaos.”

  Nico immediately drops and stumbles back from the demon’s head, his face paling at my words. “Chaos? I thought that was just a myth.”

  “It’s real. The Dark Species are born from it. This whole realm is poisoned by its touch.”

  He narrows his eyes, suspicion flickering in them. “How do you know that?”

  “Whispers of the Unknown,” I lie smoothly, keeping my expression neutral. “I hear them when I focus.” No way I’m telling him about Tessia, who spilled every secret I needed about this place.

  Above us, Tessia’s spirit hovers, her form more translucent than before, like fading mist. For days, she’s watched over me, pouring her own Star Ether into my wounds to keep me alive.

  I owe her everything.

  Before Nico can press further, I cut in. “I also know a way out of here. Follow me.”

  Without waiting for a reply, I brush past him, trailing Tessia’s ghostly glow as she guides the way.

  Nico hesitates, his boots scuffing the dirt as he mulls it over. After a tense few minutes, he falls in step behind me, silent but compliant.

  The path is smoother than I expected, carved years ago by Tessia’s group. The air feels lighter, the choking haze thinning, and no creatures ambush us.

  Tessia continues to lead the way and tells me to hide when she notices something odd in the foggy wilderness.

  Soon, we emerge from the foggy wasteland into what should be a forest or at least, its twisted remains.

  Chaos has twisted the creatures here into nightmares. One slithers below us. It's a massive serpent with two heads, one shimmering blue, the other a void-like black. Each head glares with two pairs of soulless black eyes, its sinuous body weaving through the mountain’s underground tunnels.

  When the ground quakes with its movement, we scramble up a gnarled tree, clinging to its branches until the tremors fade and the beast burrows back into the earth.

  It has been like this since we entered another mountain.

  “Have you ever killed one?” I whisper to Tessia’s phantom, my eyes locked on the serpent as it devours its prey, a monstrous creature the size of a building. Its black-feathered body is crowned with deer-like antlers. I almost call it an oversized crow until I spot the writhing tendrils spilling from its maw, grappling with the serpent’s coils.

  Tessia smirks, her translucent form swaying as she shakes her head. “That’s the Great Two-Headed Demon. We never managed to kill one, though we came close once. Here’s a tip: if the system labels anything ‘Great,’ run or hide. To earn that title, a creature has to amass power that makes it a walking catastrophe.”

  Thrum… Thrum…

  The ground shudders, and the tree we’re perched in sways violently. Below, the serpent’s twin heads tear into the winged creature’s neck. Its coils tighten around the prey’s thrashing body.

  Crack!

  A sickening snap echoes through the forest. The creature goes limp, its fight snuffed out.

  I turn away from the carnage, my eyes briefly catching Nico’s. He avoids my gaze, staring blankly into the distance, lost in his own thoughts.

  We train when we can. Nico’s been drilling me on wielding Ether, teaching me how to sharpen my control and speed up my pool’s recovery. It’s grueling. My lungs, still raw from the ordeal, struggle with the breathing techniques he insists I master.

  I lie back against the rough bark, trying to smother the questions swirling in my mind. Tessia’s ghostly form fades, conserving what little Star Ether she has left.

  To distract myself, I gaze into the empty, ash-gray sky and summon my system window, its faint glow flickering to life before me.

  Name: Astrid

  Nexus title: Demon Slayer **A Dragon hunts Chaos and its worshippers**

  Species: Human **Transending**

  Abilities: [Whispers of the Unknown], [Dormant]

  **Whispers of the unknown is a reward from resisting whispers of agony**

  Nexus Blessing: [Silver Child], [The Fire]

  Blessing: [The Fire]

  Blessing Description: [You have the blood of a dragon flowing in you. And because of that, the Emperor of Noon recognizes you. Flames will never harm you. And you will shine brightest when the sun is at its highest.]

  Blessing: [Silver Child]

  Blessing Description: [ The Empress of Twilight watches you from the moon. Your hair reminds her of her people. You are her child, and she’s your mother. As your mother, she will protect you and help you if you call out her name while looking at the moon.]

  Nexus Curse: [Undying through Return]

  Curse Description: [Defy yourself and live against your will. Defy your fate and live against Death’s Will]

  Number of returns: 2

  Job Aspect—

  Inventory: [Trusted Dagger], [Servant’s spear], [ Mirror Necklace], [Horus’s Agony]

  Since I don’t feel like sleeping, I begin to read through the descriptions.

  Trust Dagger description:

  [During the first expedition, the Grand Valos of the Five Masters discovered the Blood Steel on an Abandoned planet known as Lumina. He was betrayed by his brother and left to die on a planet crawling with the Darkness. But he did not die; he used his power to forge the Blood Steel into a weapon that became his greatest companion. It could not break because it was born from Valos’s blood. On the day he died, Valos said:

  “Only those who feel betrayed by the world are meant for this weapon. Those who would rather trust their materials than their blood” ***]

  I wonder who Valos and the five masters were. Humanity goes back so far that it's hard to pinpoint when the expeditions to the other worlds began. Some say it was after Eden became inhabitable after the first Nexus Event. Others claim that the expeditions began long before that.

  Bloodhaul doesn’t specify when exactly they start, either. And they never get into detail because it isn’t necessary for us.

  ‘I would like to see those worlds one day, though.’

  I turn to the Servant’s Spear, which was formerly the Mountain spear that I made out of convenience. I managed to make it a Nexus Item after acquiring enough points to change it. Its description hadn’t changed much, though.

  Servant’s Spear description: [ I will only cut for Dragons. I owe them my life and will continue serving them even in death. Use me to cut mountains, for I was once the Agent of Destruction.]

  I hadn’t used it yet to understand its abilities since the system upgraded it.

  Mirror Necklace description: [I am you and you are me]

  The next description was for a sword I acquired after killing the Demon.

  Horus’s Agony description: [To live is to suffer were his final words as the Chaos consumed him. Born of Silver and gifted with talent, Horus served the dragons for a while until he grew bitter towards the great guardians. Driven by a desire for power, he turned to the Chaos Lords and acquired the power of the demons. Little did he know that he would lose his humanity and drown in agony]

  I put out my hand and summon Horus’s Agony. In a breath, a black and crimson double-edged sword appears. As I hold it, I can hear whispers of a certain voice. They’re saying the same thing in a language I can’t decipher. They're loud because of the [Whispers of the Unknown] ability.

  But I don't care about that. The weapon is light, and its edges are thin enough to cut through anything I put my mind to.

  Also, its description says that Horus was like me, born of Silver, a silver child. Is this a coincidence?